Amador County – The Amador County Integrated Waste Management joint power authority is hoping that a new state commercial and multifamily recycling mandate will help meet a mandate requiring the diversion of 75 percent of waste headed to landfills by 2020.
Amador County Waste Management Director Jim McHargue said both mandates are components of AB341, which takes effect July 1. The second component is a requirement that the state meet a mandatory 75 percent diversion or recycling rate of all waste by Jan. 1, 2020, on a statewide basis.
McHargue said current state law requires 50 percent diversion of material from the waste flow, out of the landfills and into recycling or reuse. McHargue said AB 341 does change things significantly. It requires a statewide goal of 75 percent diversion.
The current 50 percent diversion must be met individually by every city and state, McHargue said, but the 75 percent mandate is not required to be met by individual cities and counties. Rather, it will be required state wide.
He said the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery will be in charge of monitoring the 75 percent diversion. McHargue said now, a “pounds per person per day” analysis looks at the amount of weight in pounds each person disposes of per day and compares that baseline number to see that cities and counties meet the 50 percent requirement.
McHargue said through the local agencies’ joint power authority, the Amador Regional Waste Management Authority, ACES Waste Service, Amador County and the five cities in the county have been involved in AB939, which requires 50 percent statewide diversion of waste. His focus has been monitoring that data. McHargue said in 2011, Amador County was approximately at a 70 percent rate of diverting waste from landfills and into recycling and reuse.
He said “really the hope is that maybe this additional commercial recycling may in fact put us up and over that 75 percent number.”
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
